Warner Asks Google to Remove Mega Links It Doesn't Even Index

Automated tools find millions of links to infringing content but are error prone

It's not much of a secret that many of the DMCA takedown requests Google receives are erroneous or plain false. With millions of them coming in, there are bound to be problems. Still, some of these request are outright ridiculous, like HBO asking for HBO.com links to be removed.

In a similar vein, Warner Bros. has sent Google a few requests asking it to remove Mega links to what it claimed to be infringing content, 16 copies of the movie Gangster Squad.

There are a few problems with this, though. For one, Warner didn't even manage to get the URLs right, the automated process which captures the links seems to be unable to handle Mega links.

But it gets better, Mega doesn't allow search engines to index its content, so Google doesn't store any link to Mega, even ones encountered elsewhere on the web.

Granted, an automated tool can't know this, it simply grabs whatever it finds and pushes it to Google. Likewise, it's also ironic that Warner didn't send Mega itself takedown notices, so the links in question are still there.